3-legged cat accidentally raises more than $1,000 for charity

A feline made famous by the Web has inspired donations to animal shelters across 4 continents.

When a photo of a Reddit user's cat made it to the front page of Imgur, he accidentally turned the feline's Internet fame into more than $1,000 of donations to animal shelters across the globe.

After the photo of Refurb — short for Refurbished because she lost a leg as a kitten — went viral, user Akslfak discussed the incident on a forum called Something Awful.

A member posted that they’d pay for a Refurb autograph, so Akslfak joked that in return for a $10 donation to an animal shelter, he’d send the user Refurb’s paw print.

To his surprise, the member posted proof of a donation and soon, other users were asking if they could get a "Refurbograph" in return for a donation.

So Akslfak and Refurb got to work making custom postcards that featured the famous feline’s pawprint in washable, nontoxic ink.

"She put up with the paw print making like a champ,” Akslfak posted on Reddit.

Less than a week later, there were 35 donations from the U.S., as well as six different countries across four continents, and Akslfak found himself making several trips to the post office.

After raising $1,300 and running out of custom cards, Akslfak and Refurb have called the project quits. However, they hope people will still be inspired to donate to their local animal rescue organizations.

"I feel I should emphasize again how incredibly silly this whole thing was," Akslfak wrote on Reddit. "Midway through making prints of my cat's paw to mail to complete strangers on the Internet, I stopped and said to myself '... what the hell am I doing?' But it's for a good cause, so hey!"